We've gone through a lot of pizza styles and recipes here at The Pizza Lab, but I still often get asked "what's the best pizza crust recipe you know?"
When I'm in the mood to fire up the grill or heat up the broiler, I might take my time and make a Neapolitan-style lean dough. If I want to relive my childhood without stepping out my apartment door, it's a New York-style. Company coming over and I want to feed a crowd without messing up the kitchen? It's Sicilian-style square pie all the way. Here's a brief run-down on the three recipes that every home pie-maker should have in their arsenal to tackle all manner of pizza-centric circumstances. More

Just because gluten can't be a part of your life doesn't mean you have to live without pizza. Our own gluten-free guru Elizabeth Barbone has created a rice flour based Yeast-Raised Pizza Crust that can take on any topping combo without cracking or drying out, the way so many GF adaptations do. More

Just because gluten can't be a part of your life doesn't mean you have to live without pizza. Our own gluten-free guru Elizabeth Barbone has created a rice flour based Yeast-Raised Pizza Crust that can take on any topping combo without cracking or drying out, the way so many GF adaptations do.
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This week for Sandwiched, I translated my slice obsession into a sandwich. Instead of a bakery roll, I begin with ready-to-use supermarket pizza dough and baked it on a sheet pan. As an ode to my adoration of Pizza Hut bread sticks, the dough that will act as the hat on these sandwiches is brushed with butter and sprinkled with a mixture of green can Parmesan cheese, dried oregano, and garlic powder. More

This Mortadella Pizza begins with the Napoletana dough, which in turn begins with a starter. Using a starter instead of just yeast adds a depth of flavor and contributes to the dough's wonderfully stretchy, pliant qualities. More

The beauty of Nancy Silverton's Pizza Dough is that she went about creating it from a bread baker's perspective stemming from her beginnings at L.A.'s La Brea Bakery. Her goal for the pizzas at Mozza was to create a dough with an open hole structure, where the just baked crust was full of big, irregular air pockets, giving it an airy cornice (or outer rim). For The Mozza Cookbook, Silverton tweaked her dough recipe used in the pizzeria for home cooks (those of us who don't have the luxury of a high heat wood-fired pizza oven). More

Sugar is an oft-misunderstood ingredient in dough. Some people believe that it's necessary to include sugar to feed the yeast. In truth, yeast is perfectly happy munching on flour. On the other hand, sugar plays several roles in dough besides that of yeast-food. Like salt, it's a flavor enhancer. Sugar helps create a fine crumb and also tenderizes dough. More

Yeast is such a common thing that we don't give much thought to how amazing it is, and what a boon it is to bakers, brewers, and winemakers. And yeast is such a fun guy. Or, more accurately, a fungi. It converts the fermentable sugars in the dough into carbon dioxide and ethanol, and those bubbles, trapped in the matrix of gluten, are what causes bread to rise. When the dough is baked, the yeast dies but the pockets of air remain, giving the bread its unique texture. More

Over on Serious Eats Talk, Cary asks: I finally managed to make a double batch of my current favorite pizza dough (new KA 600 mixer, replacing old worn down KA) and I want to freeze half. It's been doing the cold rise for several days. So, do I punch it down before freezing, and how and how long do I thaw it when I'm ready? I don't expect to freeze dough often, but I'd like it to work when I do! If you want to take or leave intel, click on through »... More